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Thirimanne flies in to save Sri Lanka

Joe Barton

It took a 23-year-old who had been in the country for just 48 hours to display the application and drive Sri Lanka have been begging for all summer.

Lahiru Thirimanne, who only landed in Australia on New Year's Day as a late call-up to an injury-ravaged squad, typified Sri Lanka's renewed attitude in the Sydney Test on Thursday by crafting a career-best 91 in their total of 294.

It's not the sort of score that will cause Michael Clarke any sleepless nights, but it's light years ahead of their twin disasters at the MCG a little over a week ago - when the top order crumbled on both occasions.

And central to it was Thirimanne, dropped after a poor series in England last April and waiting by the phone in Sri Lanka less than a week ago.

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A veteran of just seven Tests and boasting the less-than-intimidating average of 19.84, Thirimanne came within nine runs of producing just the visitors' second century on tour - something even the man he replaced, all-time great Kumar Sangakkara (fractured finger), was unable to achieve.

And after just one training session with the team, he briefly assumed the role as the team saviour.

"Kumar Sangakkara is a great player, one of the greatest cricketers in the world," Thirimanne, whose previous best was 68 against Pakistan, said afterwards.

"It's a great opportunity for me to replace him for a Test match in Australia. I thought I grabbed that opportunity with both hands."

That he threw away his century with a rash shot - and to an athletic David Warner catch - was unfortunate, and certainly a sore point afterwards for the young left-hander.

"Actually I'm really disappointed because this is a great opportunity for me after a long break from Test cricket," he said.

"But I feel I batted really well. At the end of the day, I'm really happy with my performance."

Thirimanne combined well with captain Mahela Jayawardene, putting on 62 for the third wicket as the pair looked to guide Sri Lanka to an imposing total.

But losing four wickets for just 23 runs in the final session, before a handy 21-run 10th wicket partnership, cruelled the visitors' chances of posting a dominant score.

Still, they'd followed through on Jayawardene's pre-game message to take the fight to Australia's fearsome pace attack led by MCG man-of-the-match Mitchell Johnson.

In Sydney, Johnson (0-58) went wicketless and Thirimanne weathered the best short balls that Australia's tattooed left-armer could offer.

"It's about individuals taking responsibility and knowing what they need to do," Jayawardene said on match eve.

"If you really sit down and look at what we've achieved so far in this series, I think it's not that hard to say 'no, we haven't done enough' and that we need to really stand up and count ourselves.